Education grants going to Delaware and Tennessee

BY KATHLEEN HAUGHNEY
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Despite high hopes from state officials, Florida won’t receive federal money from the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top grant program – at least not yet.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that Delaware and Tennessee will receive $100 million and $500 million, respectively, out of a $4.35 billion grant. States can revamp their applications and apply in a second round but likely won’t be eligible to receive quite as much money as they originally hoped.

Florida seemed a likely winner

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a conference call that there was no single determining factor that lifted Delaware and Tennessee above the other competing states, but that the department was impressed with the large scale support that Delaware and Tennessee had and that their plans would reach all students, not just a portion.

"This was not a pilot or a small scale thing," Duncan said. "This was reaching every student in those states and doing it in a significant way."

Florida had received much attention from U.S. education officials and pundits on the strength of its application and was considered a likely winner.

State’s bid had some weaknesses

But there were some weaknesses to the state’s bid for $1 billion of the grant money. Only 59 out of 67 county school districts signed on in support of the applications and only five teacher unions from throughout the state supported it.

Duncan said that the lack of union support was just one of many factors involved in the scoring of applications, which were worth 500 points.

"We looked for the strongest application overall," he said. "Buy-in was a piece of the application, but by no means the determining factor."

Florida placed fourth in the first round of competition behind Delaware, Tennessee and Georgia with a score of 431.4 points out of 500.

Improving grad rates a goal

The state had projected only minor overall score increases on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, but focused on closing the achievement gap between White and minority students.

It also set a goal of improving graduation rates by 9.5 percent by 2013-2014 and upping college enrollment by 2.6 percent.

"With such small growth projected.... the large amount of resources requested do not adequately match the return on results," one application reviewer wrote.

Next deadline: June 1

The deadline for the second round of applications is June 1. Duncan said during the conference call that he hoped the states would examine the reviewer comments as they revamp their applications.

There is $3.4 billion available for the second round; however, states are being limited on how much they can apply for individually. At most, Florida could win $700 million in the second round, according to grant guidelines.